3D printing for kids with Printcraft
Designing objects 3D printing no longer requires complex CAD skills. Paul Harter's clever script for Minecraft makes it child's play...
Born from a love of 3D printing creative technical architect, programer and father Paul Harter has created a way of replicating anything that can be made in the cult sandbox game Minecraft in physical form.
In general, designing objects for 3D printing depends on knowledge of CAD software - and even the simpler tools like Sketch up and 123D would be a stretch for children to use. However, Harter's children were already enjoying creating blocky objects in Minecraft, so he created Printcraft a script which can turn their creations in to an .stl file ready to be 3D printed.
After putting it online for others to use, the script has become a hit and people from around the world have been printing their Minecraft creations, both for the sake of having memorabilia and to understand and experiment with this emerging technology.
If your kids are into Minecraft and you have access to a 3D printer , go to eu1.printcraft.org to find out more.
Words: Chris Harries
Christian Harries is a final year product design student at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication.
Liked this? Read these!
- Free Photoshop brushes
- Free Photoshop actions to create stunning effects
- The best Photoshop plugins
Have you seen a cool 3D printing project? Tell us about it in the comments!
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Get top Black Friday deals sent straight to your inbox: Sign up now!
We curate the best offers on creative kit and give our expert recommendations to save you time this Black Friday. Upgrade your setup for less with Creative Bloq.
The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.
Related articles
- Alien: Rogue Incursion's art director shares the "rookie mistake" he never made again
- How Nekki is designing "visually striking" boss characters for video game SPINE
- How AI was used to create 'melty' VFX transitions in Here, the millennium spanning movie starring Tom Hanks
- PUBG creator's new game engine lets you create 'an Earth-scale world generated in real-time' - and its free to try on Steam